Guide to Hilton’s 5th night free perk and improved weekend night certificates

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Do you know how to make your Hilton points 20% more valuable?

Whenever you book five consecutive Hilton award nights, the fifth night is free. The only caveat is that you need Hilton elite status, which you’ll automatically receive just for holding any of the best Hilton credit cards.

For example, you’ll earn Hilton Gold Status with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, which comes with 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. And you’ll earn Hilton Silver status with the Hilton Honors American Express Card, which comes with 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $1,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. Plus, you can earn up to $100 in statement credits on eligible purchases made on the card at any of the Hilton family hotels in the first 12 months of membership.

I’ll run through everything you should know about this super-valuable perk.

How does the Hilton fifth-night-free benefit work?

There are very important distinctions concerning Hilton’s fifth-award-night-free perk:

• You do not receive every fifth award night for free, like a Subway sandwich card. This perk activates only when you book five consecutive award nights at a time
• This perk is also not a rebate. Once you select the five nights you want, you’ll see the discounted price at checkout. This is great, because that means you only need four nights worth of points to stay five nights

For example, let’s say you book a four-night stay at a hotel that charges 60,000 Hilton points per night. At checkout you would owe 240,000 points (60,000 points per night x 4). But if you booked five nights instead of four, you would pay the same 240,000 Hilton points, Hilton’s fifth night free perk would automatically discount each night to just 48,000 Hilton points.

In other words, Hilton won’t show that you received a free night. Instead it will display the discount by taking points off each night.

Pro tip: If you’re booking more than five nights with varying award prices, book the five most expensive consecutive nights separately. That way the website will average the most expensive nights and give you the biggest discount.

Are there exceptions?

There are a few exceptions where you will not get the fifth night free:

• Points and money doesn’t count as an award stay. You’ll have to use ALL POINTS to get the fifth night free
• You can only book a standard room
• You can’t combine the fifth-night-free with any other Hilton promotion

How do you book a fifth night free?

Booking a fifth night free is hassle free. Sign into your Hilton account and select a stay of five nights or more. You’ll automatically get the fifth-night-free discount.

Remember, only folks who have Silver, Gold, or Diamond elite status can use this perk. If you don’t have Hilton elite status, you can earn it just by opening any of the Hilton credit cards:

• Hilton Honors American Express Card (no annual fee; see rates & fees) – Earn 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $1,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. Plus, you can earn up to $100 in statement credits on eligible purchases made on the card at any of the Hilton family hotels in the first 12 months of membership.
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card ($95 annual fee; see rates & fees) – Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership.
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card ($95 annual fee; see rates & fees) – Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. Plus, you can earn up to $130 in statement credits on eligible purchases made on the card at any of the Hilton family hotels in the first 12 months of Membership. Offer expires 7/6/2022.
• Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express ($450 annual fee; see rates & fees) – 150,000 Hilton points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening

The information for the Hilton Aspire card and Hilton Surpass Card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

You can also pool points with up to 10 friends or family members for free, up to 500,000 points per year. So you and a travel buddy can each open a card and combine your points to get enough points to book four award nights.

Using free night certificates from credit cards at Hilton

Three Hilton credit cards come with the opportunity to earn an annual weekend-night award, redeemable participating Hilton hotels for a free night on Friday, Saturday or Sunday:

• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card – One weekend night after spending $15,000 on purchases each calendar year
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card – One weekend night after spending $15,000 on purchases each calendar year
• Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express – Weekend night award upon renewal of the card each year, plus a second weekend night award each calendar year when you spend $60,000+ in eligible purchases on your card

Hilton has recently made a wildly popular update to this benefit — weekend night certificates issued on or before December 31, 2020, can now be used for any night, not just weekend nights. This is in the wake of COVID-19 halting travel for months on end, giving you less opportunity to redeem your certificates.

Let me know if you’ve used Hilton’s fifth night free benefit! And subscribe to our newsletter for more miles and points need-to-know info.

For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Amex card, click here.

For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Surpass card, click here.

For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Business card, click here.

For rates and fees of the Hilton Aspire card, click here.